PASTOR’S BLOG
While the Wife’s Away
Day 3 – Get creative and dream big
(remember, blog 4-5 days behind events)
Angella is still enroute to Jamaica flying from Sydney to LA but yippee, it’s third day same burrito and rice meal coming up! I awake at 12.30 am after two hours of sleep with my mind full of ideas. With paper and pen at the ready, over the next 2-3 hours I jot down creative ideas as they come to mind.
I’m reminded of a time I spent apart from my wife when I visited Kenya. That too was a time when my mind decided it wanted to be creative. In traffic in Nairobi for about three hours with Pastor Abrahams Odongo I started composing and singing a silly song about being in a traffic jam and he joined in. Perhaps, because I was apart from my wife, the song strangely morphed into a song encouraging good communication in marriage.
I couldn’t ever remember hearing a song about a traffic jam before, but guess what the first song I heard on the radio the next day was about – a traffic jam. Then on the aeroplane home, there was a song about ‘jamming’. Upon arriving home, someone told me a joke with the exact same humour and message you see in my lyrics below. Could God be telling me go ahead with this song? I became consumed with finishing the composition of the song dreaming of a hit single which would also be beneficial to married couples and a fun theme song for marriage retreats/conventions. Part of the lyrics are:
Share with your wife in a traffic jam
Give her your full attention
Tell her you got a new job - last year!
And other things you failed to mention.
Chorus
Say ‘Jambo’ in the traffic jam
Say ‘Jambo’ in the traffic jam
Now you got time on your hands
Say ‘Jambo’ in the jam.
Note: ‘Jambo’ is a general Swahili greeting similar to ‘hello’.
The funniest thing of all is some brilliant and famous Kenyan musicians soon made a first recording. I think they did an amazing job. It needs a couple of lyrical tweaks and a male singer on one verse, but I still hope it will be edited, redone and released by them. Have a listen to the recording of ‘Say Jambo’ below, see the amended lyrics, and tell me whether it ministered to you as a married person and whether you’d encourage them, or someone else, to release it.
When the wife’s away, get creative.
Amended lyrics to “Say Jambo’ below:
Say Jambo in Traffic Jam © by David Kidd
Chorus
Say ‘Jambo’ in the traffic jam
Say ‘Jambo’ in traffic jam
Now you got time on your hands
Say ‘Jambo’ to wife in the jam. (Only include ‘to wife’ in first chorus)
Know your wife in traffic jam
Find out her middle name
Ask her her favourite colour
Check if her hair has changed.
Share with your wife in traffic jam
Give her your full attention
Tell her you got a new job - last year!
And other things you failed to mention.
Chorus
Listen to your wife in traffic jam
She got many good things to say
Maybe the car need new tyre
It could even be her birthday.
Discuss your children in traffic jam
Find out where they go to school
Check if they’re living for Jesus
In case you have been fooled.
Chorus
(male voice)
I talked to my wife once in traffic jam
Cos my sound system wasn’t workin
And it’s wrong to drive using i-phone
She seemed a very nice person
Check your wife’s smile in traffic jam
Smile at her with your teeth
Find out whether she’s happy
how she’s feelin underneath.
Chorus
Your wife may be on the edge of leaving
Because she’s been ignored
Thank God for the terrible traffic jam
That your marriage may be restored.
Toot if you’re in love again
Shout out her middle name
Rejoice! Someone actually likes you
Give praise in Jesus name.
Say ‘Jambo’ in the traffic jam
Say ‘Jambo’ in traffic jam
Now you got time on your hand
Say ‘Jambo’ in the jam … during closing repeats of chorus have
Now you got time on your hand shouts of middle names in background
Say ‘Jambo’ in the jam.
Say ‘Jambo’ in the traffic jam
Now you got time on your hand
Say ‘Jambo’ in the jam
Now you got time on your hand
Say ‘Jambo’ in the jam
Now you got time on your hand
Say ‘Jambo’ in the jam. Jambo! Jambo!